Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 662 Director Sun: I Have a Dream (4K)

After Li Na entered the finals, Chen Ran was also in the spotlight.

Many Chinese journalists and fans immediately concluded that Li Na, who used to play honestly, appeared to be much more cunning in this Olympics and even knew how to use the rules of the game to perform tricks.

This isn't like her at all!

Then there is only one truth, which is Chen Ran’s words and deeds.

You have to know that this guy has been famous for his cunning and treachery since he made his debut in the tour at the age of 16. He has used all kinds of psychological warfare tactics, and is simply an outlier among Chinese athletes.

Li Na was led astray by him!

Most people were delighted that Li Na made it to the women's singles final, but there were also a few keyboard warriors, experts, and public intellectuals who complained sourly that it was not honorable to win a game by using tricks outside the game.

Don’t these moral guardians see how many times Chinese athletes have been cheated by foreign tricks?
As for those guys in the Sports Bureau, although they didn't really agree with these actions in their hearts, after all, results are the most important thing and everything else is secondary, so they could only accept it with a pinch of their nose.

But Li Na was still a little dazed after returning to the locker room.

She felt both ecstasy for having made it to the Olympic women's singles and a little anxious because she had cheated.

Li Na also studied Chen Ran's career.

That kid has enjoyed psychological warfare since he started playing professional tour at the age of sixteen, and he even said something shocking: I'm here to play basketball, not to make friends.

After that, Sharapova also said something similar, but in the eyes of the outside world, she was just imitating her ex-boyfriend.

"Why can he think so clearly at the age of sixteen, but I am 26 and still care so much about what others think?"

Li Na knew that her friendship with Safina had completely ended since today and there was no possibility of repair.

Of course, she had nothing to regret.

Li Na was even sure that if she complained to Chen Ran about losing a sister because of this game, the latter would most likely sneer at her: In the world of professional tennis, sisters are of no use. Don't be so pretentious in front of me.

From Chen Ran’s perspective.

If winning an Olympic or Grand Slam title means losing a friend, he would definitely establish good relationships with all the ATP players in advance and then crush them one by one with his own hands!
In short, their thinking is not on the same channel.

Li Na turned on the TV in the locker room and watched the second semi-final.

"Eh... isn't my opponent Sharapova anymore?"

Before the match, the media generally believed that Sharapova could beat her compatriot Dementieva.

After all, Sharapova has a clear advantage in terms of both strength and popularity.

However, Sharapova was injured after all.

After all, her shoulder injury was within controllable range and not serious.

But the Olympic schedule is too tight and the competition is so intense that the players have almost no time to rest and adjust.

Five consecutive days of competition also aggravated Sharapova's shoulder injury and became uncontrollable.

Sharapova couldn't hold on and had to withdraw from the game.

She even said she might withdraw from the upcoming U.S. Open.

Dementieva received the gift of entering the final.

Sharapova's debut as a talented teenager means that her young body is constantly competing against adults, and all the competitions she participates in are high-level tours.

So in the original time and space, Sharapova's performance after the age of 30 was far inferior to that of Li Na.

It can even be said that during the critical period of Li Na's growth, she stayed in the national team to lay the foundation and mainly participated in youth competitions, which better protected her body.

Now, the final match is Li Na VS Dementieva.

From the perspective of Chinese fans, media, and leaders of relevant departments, they would also prefer that Li Na face Elena Dementieva rather than the popular Sharapova.

Here's your chance to win gold!
At this moment, Li Na, who was in the locker room, was looking at the TV above her head and discovered something.

Sharapova simply clapped her hands with Dementieva, then turned and left without looking back, like a proud white swan.

Li Na also knows that Sharapova has always been a unique figure among the Russian beauty queens.

Those Russian female players excluded her and hated her because of her popularity, commercial value, and outstanding record.

So Sharapova’s best friends have never been WTA players, they are all amateurs off the court.

She didn't care about the Russian Red Army's rejection of her at all, and even regarded this rejection as ridiculous jealousy.

"She doesn't care about her fellow Russian sisters, why should I care about losing a Russian friend?"

Li Na couldn't help but think so.

In the top four list of this Olympics, three seats are occupied by Russian players. If I can really win the championship, it will be a good story.

"In the final, it's better to face Dementieva than Sharapova," she thought.

……

For Chen Ran, Sharapova's withdrawal was not a big surprise.

The opponent is indeed injured. If it was a Grand Slam competition, it might be controllable because the competition is held every two days, but the Olympic schedule is too tough, and the bad weather is also very torturous.

Now, the places for the women's singles final have been decided, and the two men's singles semi-finals will follow.

Chen Ran is also under a lot of pressure, as his semi-final opponent is Djokovic.

Chen Ran also knew that Djokovic in his previous life won a bronze medal in this Olympics, but this had no reference value to him.

Just because Djokovic didn't make it to the final in his previous life, you can't assume that you will be able to make it to the final this time.

Everything has already become different.

What's more, that kid has a very strong sense of national honor, and he might be more committed in the Olympics than in the Grand Slams.

"Come on, I believe you can make it to the finals!" Before the competition, Director Sun was cheering Chen Ran on.

Even Deputy Director Cai, who is in charge of the small ball project, was present at this semi-final.

However, Chen Ran is a professional player and is responsible for his own profits and losses. In the past few years, he has had very little time to speak to Director Cai.

To be precise, Director Cai knew that he could not control the other party, so he did not take the initiative to step forward to avoid embarrassing himself.

Normally, the cunning Director Cai would ask Director Sun to deliver messages.

"Director Cai..."

Chen Ran looked at Director Cai, who had a smiling face, and greeted him.

"Come on, young man, try to win another gold medal!" Director Cai also greeted him enthusiastically, "You are now the benchmark for our Chinese athletes."

Chen Ran's heart moved, and he asked, "Director Cai, I have a question that I'm curious about."

"what is the problem?"

"Do you guys consider my Grand Slam championships as KPIs...performance?"

Director Cai was slightly stunned. This boy was really direct. He dared to ask anything.

"Yes! In professional tennis, only Grand Slam results count. Other results don't count." "Besides professional tennis, there are Davis Cup, Asian Games and Olympics?"

"The Davis Cup does count, but it's not very important. On the contrary, it's not as important as the Asian Games. Of course, the Olympics are the most important." Director Cai also explained enthusiastically.

Chen Ran understood and nodded.

Chen Ran has never played a single match in such a useless competition as the Davis Cup.

Although the Davis Cup appearance fee is very considerable, it is still not attractive to Chen Ran.

The Olympics is the highest level, which is understandable.

From another perspective, if the Sports Bureau puts the Olympics and the Grand Slams on the same footing, then Chen Ran's sixteen Grand Slam titles would be equivalent to sixteen Olympic men's basketball titles. Wouldn't that be a mess?
So the tennis community has its own set of judging criteria, and the Sports Bureau has its own set of judging criteria.

Director Cai continued cheerfully, "In table tennis, both the men's and women's singles have won the championship and runner-up. In badminton, there is a great hope that both the men's and women's singles will win. As for tennis..."

"Keep a low profile, keep a low profile..." Director Sun immediately retorted, "Director Cai, you can just think about this kind of thing in your mind, but don't just say it out loud."

Director Cai also realized it and immediately shut up: "Low profile, a low profile."

Chen Ran didn't pay much attention to the table tennis match, so he asked casually: "Who will play against whom in the men's singles table tennis final?"

"Wang Liqin and Wang Hao, a duel between two people with the surname Wang." Director Cai replied directly.

Chen Ran realized that history had indeed deviated. Wang Liqin defeated Ma Lin and entered the Olympic final.

There are rumors that Liangzi doesn't like Wang Liqin and prefers Wang Hao and Ma Lin.

So after these three people retired, Wang Hao and Ma Lin stayed in the national team to be Liangzi's followers and learn how to be coaches, while Wang Liqin went straight back to the Shanghai Sports Bureau to be an official, where he could be at ease and out of sight and out of mind.

This situation remained unchanged until the time Chen Ran was reborn.

As for the last time when the representatives of the "three small balls" took a group photo, the representative of table tennis was Wang Liqin. This is because Wang Liqin, Wang Hao and Ma Lin none of them had Olympic singles championships, and in terms of performance, Wang Liqin was the most outstanding.

What's more, in today's national table tennis team, because of the existence of Director Cai, Liang Zi has not yet reached the point of monopolizing power, and Director Cai himself prefers Wang Liqin.

But after Director Cai took charge of football, he paid less and less attention to table tennis, which allowed Liang Zi to monopolize power and do whatever he wanted.

Chen Ran had a bad impression of Liang Zi because every time the national table tennis team took a group photo, Liang Zi liked to stand in the C position with people around him, and he also asked all the gold medals of the national table tennis players to hang around his neck.

Under normal circumstances, as a responsible leader, shouldn’t you give the attention to the athletes?

If it were tennis, Chen Ran would definitely not give this leader any good face.

"Director Cai..." Chen Ran came back to his senses and joked, "You have already achieved success in the three small balls. I guess the leaders will ask you to spread your advanced experience in the three big balls in the future."

"You kid..." Director Cai laughed, "You are quite good at talking."

In fact, he still admired Chen Ran's boldness. Other athletes, even Olympic champions, were cautious and timid in front of him, fearing that they would say the wrong thing.

But Chen Ran didn't seem nervous or shy at all, and just said whatever he wanted to say.

In fact, if Director Sun had not been present, Chen Ran would not have been afraid to get out of the car.

"The three major sports..." Director Cai was immediately filled with ambition after hearing what Chen Ran said. "In this Olympics, the achievements of the three major sports, whether men or women, are generally mediocre. The people are quite dissatisfied."

Let alone the men's football and volleyball teams, they are in a completely dismal state.

The men's basketball team, women's football team, and women's basketball team are not much better. The only team that has hope of winning a medal is the women's volleyball team.

"If the country needs it, I am certainly willing to give it a try. I don't believe that we Chinese can't do well in the three major sports, especially men's football!" Director Cai said in a firm tone.

He is very confident in himself and thinks he can handle football well.

Chen Ran didn't say anything, but he thought in his heart that this guy would probably do the same as in his previous life and take a trip to the football circle.

In fact, it doesn’t matter whether your grades are good or not. What matters is that the benefits in that circle are really tempting.

Real Estate Football League, that’s not said in vain.

Chen Ran didn't waste any time and began to warm up and prepare for the semi-finals.

……

In this semi-final, Chen Ran and Djokovic, two masters of psychological warfare, started the most maddening duel since the start of the Olympics.

When Chen Ran broke the serve first, Djokovic started calling for a medical timeout.

But when Djokovic's form started to improve, Chen Ran didn't hesitate to say that his feet were hurting and he wanted to change his shoes.

In short, these two people came up with various plans to get a place in the finals.

In the first set, Chen Ran struggled to hold on to his serve and won the first set 7-5.

During the break, Djokovic continued his plan.

He said he had chest pain, then took off his clothes and allowed medical staff to massage his chest.

This guy also wailed from time to time, as if he was in great pain.

Damn it, Chen Ran doesn’t spoil him either.

Just say that your socks are torn and ask for a new pair.

He even took out a sock plan.

Chen Ran even deliberately waved his stinky socks in front of Djokovic.

The latter's expression was extremely wonderful.

My goodness, these two people have become shameless just for a place in the Olympic finals.

At least neither of them has ever done this in a Grand Slam tournament.

In the second set, both sides continued to make plans.

Chen Ran even deliberately walked up to a group of Serbian spectators, swearing at them and yelling at the security guards to kick them out.

When it comes to various PLANs, Chen Ran will never lose to anyone.

Then, Chen Ran, like Li Na, often complained about the audience moving around and disturbing Djokovic, which really disrupted Djokovic's mentality.

He complains much more frequently than Li Na.

Djokovic also had a lot of plans, but he discovered a reality: the devil is always one step ahead of you.

No matter how he planned, Chen Ran would counterattack him even more crazily.

In the second set, Djokovic and Chen Ran were deadlocked until the tie-break, but Djokovic still lost to Chen Ran 7-9.

Chen Ran secured a spot in the singles final.

On the other side, Director Sun also jumped up happily.

She has a dream, which is to hope that Chinese players can win the men's and women's singles gold medals at the Yanjing Olympics.

……

(End of this chapter)